“Well yes, I’ve seen one of them. It’s exquisite, but what has that got to do with helping get Gsefx out of danger?”
Alcorn’s startled look changed to disappointment.
“Here I was,” he said shaking his head, “starting to actually believe how much further advanced you were than I, and yet after seeing Henry’s works you have to ask that question.”
“Just what is that supposed to mean?” said Qilzar, drawing himself up in a most offended way.
“It’s not supposed to mean anything. It actually means that if you had looked at that painting, and really knew what you were seeing, you’d know what Henry has to offer. And you’d know that Gsefx is much safer with him than with any of us.”
“Just what is it that he has to offer?”
“He sees the truth, Qilzar. He sees the truth in everything. In people, in situations, in … hell, I don’t even know, just everything. He will know if this Xtlar is lying, or if Pigawitts is, or if they’re both telling the truth. He will be able to tell if they are in any danger well ahead of time.”
Qilzar looked unconvinced.
“That seems unlikely,” he said. “But even if it’s true, what good does it do to know that Xtlar is lying to them if they’re already trapped in the room with him?”
“That’s where our trust has to come in, Qilzar. Trust in Gsefx’s instincts.”
Alcorn stopped and looked at Qilzar.
“How long have you known Gsefx?” he said.
Qilzar looked up, as if he was counting in his head.
“I’ve known him for nearly ten turns, and worked closely with him for the past six,” he said, “why?”
“What is a turn?” asked Alcorn. “Is it anything like a year, the length of time it takes Earth to orbit our sun?”
“I suppose for our purposes, yes, consider them the same,” said Qilzar with a sigh. “What are you getting at?”
“What I’m getting at, is that you’ve known Gsefx for a lot longer than I have. You know far better than I do what he’s capable of, yet you have far less faith in him than I do; someone who’s only known him for a few hours.”
“Perhaps,” said Qilzar, “or perhaps it’s that, since you have only known him for a few hours, as you call them, you don’t understand just how much he means to those of us who have known him for a lot longer. Perhaps if you did, you’d be trying harder to find a way out of here instead of bickering about how we should simply trust in his ability to survive.”
“Perhaps we can do both,” said Alcorn, “the main bay is just through those doors ahead of us.”
Alcorn watched Qilzar’s eyes as he looked at the doors, and saw a brief flicker of doubt, quickly followed by deep resolve. The kind of resolve that showed just how much Qilzar cared for his friend.
“Lead the way,” said the Dremin.
While Alcorn didn’t fully agree with Qilzar’s assessment of Gsefx’s situation, he did share his concern. Gsefx and Henry were both at risk, as they all were, and would continue to be until they could find and stop whoever was at the root of all of this. Of course, there was also the possibility that Qilzar was right and Gsefx was in over his head, but that was not something he wanted to think about. He squared his jaw and walked toward the door, ready to face whatever might be waiting on the other side.
Chapter 58
Stop Looking At Me Like That
Lhvunsa held her head high and walked away from Qilzar and the Earthling, Alcorn, as if she feared nothing. She had lost herself just moments before but she was back now. The General had brought her back and now she was expected to go on, as if everything was fine and her whole world hadn’t just completely shattered. Perhaps Gsefx would be able to take care of himself, as Alcorn suggested, but it didn’t make it any less difficult for her. She made it around the corner and through a set of doors before dropping to the floor again, this time in a pile of tears.
“Lhvunsa, are you okay? What’s wrong?” It was Theo.
“Nothing,” she said through her tears. She held up her hand to keep him back. The last thing she needed was to be rescued again. “Just … give me a …” the tears overtook her words.
“Sure,” said Theo as he plopped down next to her.
Lhvunsa continued sobbing, all the while waiting for Theo to offer some words of comfort, or encouragement, or something else to get her to stop, but nothing came. He remained silent. When she finally looked up at him, he was sitting there next to her, his knees pulled up and his arms folded across them, with his head resting comfortably and eyes closed. Was he asleep?
“Theo?” she asked tentatively. “Are you sleeping?”
“No, just waiting,” he said. “As much as I would love to find Henry’s paintings, I’m in no big hurry to blindly run around this complex hoping to stumble upon them. My dad is a brilliant man, but sometimes he doesn’t really think things through very well.”
Lhvunsa smiled.
“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I suppose you’re right.”
She paused for a moment and then continued.
“Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“For letting me cry, and not trying to stop me or comfort me or do all of the things most males try to do when they encounter a weeping female.”
“Sure thing,” said the younger Alcorn with a smile. “My mother is a very strong woman. She’s had to be to be married to my dad for all these years. But I learned early on that there were times when she just needed to sit and cry. She and my dad have always been very close, they’re a team really. Actually, more so than I ever knew. But, with his position in the military, he wasn’t always around, which meant my mom had to carry the load by herself a lot of the time. Sometimes it got to be too much and she’d break down and cry. I’d try to comfort her, and sometimes she’d let me, but most of the time she’d tell me that she was okay, just like you did, and that she just needed some time to herself to let out some of the things inside of her.”
“Later on, she would explain to me that when she cried it wasn’t always because she was sad or upset or having a breakdown. Sometimes she just needed to let things out so they wouldn’t hold her down any longer, and that it was okay for her to do that.”
Lhvunsa was stunned. She tried to say something, anything, but found that she could do nothing but stare at the General’s son.
“What?” asked Theo. “Stop looking at me like that. You’re kinda creeping me out.”
Lhvunsa shook herself free and looked away as well.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just that … I would never have expected … your world and your people are still in very primitive stages of development, yet you and your father show incredible signs of maturity.”
“Umm … thank you … I think.”
“It is a great testament to you that you are so advanced. Are all of your race similarly mature?”
Theo scoffed. “Hardly. And don’t be so quick to lump the General and me into the overly mature category, either. We have our moments, but we also have our moments when we’re not all that advanced either.”
“The General, you mean your father, right?”
“My father, the General, Sir-Yes-Sir, they’re all interchangeable. It makes no difference.”
“I see,” said Lhvunsa, and she did. She thought of the trials she had with her mother and the way they often fought. It made her sad for Theo, but it also made her feel less distant from Earthlings as a whole. “Would you like to talk about it?”
“About what? My daddy issues? No thanks. I gave you your space, I’ll ask that you do the same.”
“Fair enough,” said Lhvunsa, getting to her feet. “We should probably start looking for the paintings.”
“Would you mind if we didn’t?
“Excuse me?”
“Look, don’t get me wrong, art is my specialty, paintings in particular. In fact, on Earth, I am probably one of the top twenty or so experts on the entire planet. I’ve actu
ally seen some of Henry’s work, the ones that Gsefx held on to. They are … well, they’re beyond words. In just the few minutes I had to examine his paintings, it was clear to me that Henry Backus is one of the greatest artists our planet has ever known and I would love nothing more than to spend hours analyzing his work …”
“But …”
“But, running around this maze of a place, like we actually know what we’re doing, is not what I had in mind. Not to mention the fact that it’s a completely idiotic idea.”
“It was your father’s idea,” said Lhvunsa. “You think he’s an idiot?”
“No, my father is a genius, and I mean that in all seriousness,” said Theo. “But like I said before, he doesn’t always think things through. Besides, he really doesn’t care if we look for the paintings or not, he just didn’t want us along while he chases after Ricnor.”
Lhvunsa was surprised by the accusation and wondered how true it was. It did make a certain amount of sense.
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve known the man all my life,” said Theo, “and I can tell when he wants me out of the way. I’m his biggest disappointment, you know.”
“I doubt that very much,” said Lhvunsa.
“It’s true, but I’ve learned to live with … hey … we’re not talking about this, remember?”
“You’re the one who brought it up,” said Lhvunsa, smiling.
Lhvunsa sat back down, this time across from Theo, so she could see his face.
“But, as you wish,” she said, once she got situated, “we won’t talk about it. Let’s talk about my husband instead.”
“Gsefx? Sure, what do you want to know?”
“You were with him at the same time as your father, correct?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Because I want to know what you think of him,” said Lhvunsa. “The General was certain that Gsefx can take care of himself, that he is somehow this strong, intelligent hero who is capable of anything. I want to believe that. I want to see my husband again, but I’m not sure I share your father’s confidence.”
“Sure, I get that,” said Theo. “Let me think of the best way to put it. I guess I would agree with the General, in that Gsefx is very capable. He is strong, smart, and he’s able to see and understand the big picture quickly.”
“Why do I feel you’re about to add something that I’m not going to like?” said Lhvunsa.
“Because, as much as I agree with my father about your husband’s abilities, Gsefx doesn’t see it in himself. He thinks he’s just another accountant, just an everyday guy trying to rescue his wife. He thinks everything he’s done has been out of desperation and doesn’t even realize all that he’s accomplishing, much less how he’s doing it. He lacks confidence in himself, at least in the larger sense. And that lack of confidence, a feeling like he’s always winging it, will end up hurting him, and maybe all of us, if he doesn’t start believing in his ability to lead.”
Lhvunsa was silent for a while, as she mulled Theo’s words over in her head. She could see that what he said was true. Gsefx was, in his own way, quite brilliant, but aside from accounting, he’d always been unfocused, bouncing from one hobby to another, never landing on anything that really spoke to him the way architecture had always spoken to her. And the part about his confidence made her heart ache for her husband, because that, above all else, she knew to be true. Even when all of the evidence pointed to his extraordinary talents and strengths, he still questioned his own abilities all too often, and she had no idea what to do about it.
“Lhvunsa, are you still with me?” asked Theo. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No,” she said. “You are exactly right. I just don’t know how to help him. How to help him find the confidence your father has, preferably without the arrogance.”
“You may not believe this,” said Theo with a smile, “but the General is not nearly as arrogant as you might think. In fact, he’s actually rather humble.”
“You’re right, I don’t believe it.”
“Given what you know about me and my relationship with him, do you think I’d say it if I didn’t believe it to be true?”
“What makes you so sure?”
“It’s an act. General Theodore Eustace Alcorn is a phenomenal actor. It’s how he gets what he wants out of other people, and he’s able to pull it off because he has the one thing Gsefx lacks—confidence.”
“So, as far as you’re concerned, everything’s an act with him. Is that it?”
“No, not everything,” said Theo. “In fact, the people he’s closest to mostly see the genuine thing. Now, he and I have never been all that close, but, like I said earlier, he and my mom are, and since I’m close to my mom, I’ve had enough chances to see them together. I’ve also been able to see him work the people he didn’t know, when he wanted something from them, and he pulls out all kinds of personality traits when the situation calls for it.”
“Has he ever worked you before?” asked Lhvunsa.
“He’s tried, but it’s never really gotten him anywhere,” said Theo. “He wanted me to be a soldier, to follow in his footsteps, so to speak. But you can only hustle someone for what they have, and soldiering just wasn’t in me. In the end, all he did was push us further apart.”
“What brought you back together?” asked Lhvunsa.
“What makes you think we’ve come back together?”
Lhvunsa stumbled for a moment, looking for something to say. When nothing presented itself, she decided silence was best.
“Look, don’t get me wrong, I love my dad, and I have a lot more respect for him than he thinks I do. And for the most part, I really don’t harbor that much resentment for him, especially after what we’ve been through over the past day or so. But, no matter how you slice it, we’re just not that close and I don’t see that changing any time soon.”
“I think I understand,” said Lhvunsa, rising to her feet and thinking of her up-and-down relationship with her mother, hoping she would get a chance to see her again and deciding that if they got out of here in one piece, she would make it a priority to make things right. “We should get going. I’m not sure how far it is to the Grand Chamber, but it’s almost time to meet up with your dad and Qilzar.”
“Agreed,” said Theo, also standing up. “Hey, shouldn’t the police, or whatever you call them, be here by now?”
Lhvunsa stopped. Her dealings with the GCP had been limited to her one experience during the break-in, but they’d certainly been prompt then.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, they should have,” she said. “Something must have gone wrong. We’d best hurry so we can resend the signal.”
Theo led as they picked their way through a maze of corridors and rooms, both large and small. Scattered in various places throughout their path, they came across the bodies of several of Ricnor’s gang, still unconscious. When they finally reached the entrance to the Grand Chamber, they stopped to survey the path ahead of them before charging on through. All appeared to be clear, so they entered the chamber and began working their way across.
When they reached the half-way point, they heard a loud shriek and turned just in time to see what Lhvunsa recognized as a Lildrinial fire a blast from an obliterator.
“Theo! Look out!” she screamed.
Chapter 59
All This Time, It’s Been You!
There were exactly thirty-seven steps between the lift and the conference room door. In Gsefx’s ten turns at Galacticount, he’d walked them often enough to know precisely how far he had before he committed career suicide, and possibly much worse. As he walked, he fought down the multitude of thoughts running through his mind, all of which led back to his beloved Lhvunsa. When they reached the door, he gave Henry a look he hoped was more reassuring then he felt, and took a deep breath. He reached for the door, but was stopped before he could open it.
“Gsefx? I’m just checking to make sure you’re okay before we go in. You haven’t said a word si
nce we left the lobby.”
“Yes Henry, I’m okay.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “What we’re about to do is going to be very difficult. Fortunately, they haven’t revoked my access yet, so we should be able to get into this room. This is where Pigawitts is. He’s the one we’re after, the one who’s behind Lhvunsa’s kidnapping.”
“Then it’s good we’re here, right?”
“Yes, except that once we’re in the room, they’re likely to call security right away, and Galacticount security is both fast and none too gentle. We’re probably not going to be in the room very long. Are you sure you’re ready for this, Henry?”
“Hey, I’ve been thrown out of nicer places than this,” said Henry holding up his fist toward Gsefx. “Let’s do this.”
Gsefx looked at the fist, confused. “What is that?”
“It’s a fist bump. It’s normally a greeting like a handshake or something, but for you and me, it’s a sign of solidarity; it’s a sign that we are in this thing together, win or lose. We will live to fight another day or we will die trying, but we will do it together, as a team. Make a fist and bump mine, and we’ll go in and find the truth behind all of this.”
Gsefx made a fist, and with a smile on his face, bumped it with Henry’s. Then they both walked into the conference room.
As soon as he stepped inside, Gsefx knew he’d made a terrible mistake. The conversation that had been taking place inside abruptly stopped and three sets of eyes turned on him. Two pairs of those eyes belonged to the most powerful figures at Galacticount, while the third was the namesake of one the company’s oldest and most prestigious clients.
“What is the meaning of this interruption?” said Xtlar, who rose to intercept the intruders. “Gsefx, have you lost your mind? You know better than to interrupt a private meeting. Aren’t you in enough trouble as it is?”
Gsefx almost faltered at Xtlar’s scolding. His mouth went dry and he suddenly forgot why he was here.
What was so important that he needed to interrupt a meeting of this magnitude?
Your Truth is Out There (Find Your Truth Book 1) Page 27